Eat
This month Emberly has explored several new foods – avocados, bananas, pears, blueberries, grapes, pineapple, peanut butter (she loves!!), prunes, yogurt, chicken (all pureed or mashed pretty well) and devours everything we feed her except the yogurt. We’ll work on that. She eats real food 3 times a day and nurses 4 times a day and then again right before bed.

Sleep
Emberly has gone from being a back to a devoted left side sleeper. She’s mostly transitioned to 2 naps a day, but since she was sick for almost half of this month, she took a few extra shorter naps during the day. Night sleeping hasn’t been the best – she did well a few days after getting over jetlag, then got sick and was up every couple of hours almost every night (send coffee).

Play
This month play time has exploded! She rolls all around and loves to explore new textures with her hands. We’ve started reading books more often and she especially loves the touch-and-feel ones. Whenever she gets something new she studies it very carefully with her little eyebrows furrowed before shoving it in her mouth. Emberly has started babbling more and loves to say “ba-ba” and “da-da” and blow raspberries.

Emberly,
You’ve learned to consistently roll around to get where/what you want (finally!!). Which is great until nap/bed times. You like to fall asleep on your side, then roll on to your tummy which wakes you up, but you’ve learned to just roll back and go to sleep. You caught a cold this month that lasted 2+ weeks and did not enjoy when we tried to clear your nose (understandably). We’ve discovered that you’re ticklish and whenever we blow raspberries on your belly and chubby thighs you giggle uncontrollably. You absolutely love when daddy walks in the door after work and squeal and kick you legs in excitement. You are such a delight!

Firsts

You went to the Swiss Alps and experienced your first real snow.

You went on your first gondola ride and were pretty indifferent about the whole experience.

Glühwein, Bratwurst, cotton candy, crepes, roasting chestnuts – these are just a few of the wonderful smells that greet you as you enter a Weihnachtsmarkt. Booths decorated festively selling everything from leather goods to wooden toys to candles to intricate glass & wooden Christmas tree decorations to puppets line the market area and everyone wandering around seems to be in a happy mood. This is just one reason why I love Germany at Christmastime.

The day after we arrived in Germany, the whole family (except my mom) spent the late afternoon/early evening wandering around the Heidelberger Weihnachtsmarkt. I was so excited to finally have Loren experience everything I had told him about this wonderful Christmas tradition. The Heidelberger Weihnachtsmarkt is spread out between 6 city squares, and we wandered through most of them taking in all the sights and smells. It was raining pretty steadily that evening, but it was magical nonetheless.

We couldn’t stay away, so Loren, Emberly and I went back downtown to the market the next day to explore more and dine on Bratwurst and Nutella crepes. Naturally, Emberly just napped the entire time, so we’ll just have to go back when she’s older and can ride the carousel like her big cousin!

If you ever plan on going to Germany (or Europe for that matter) during the Christmas season, I highly recommend checking to see if wherever you’re going has a Weihnachtmarkt!

Christmas has long since come and gone, but here I am finally documenting the greatest holiday.

We arrived in Germany a few days before Christmas to spend the holidays with my parents and a few of my siblings.

Since Christmas Eve was on a Sunday this year, instead of the annual evening Christmas Eve service, we had a special Sunday morning service, then came home to get ready for an evening of family traditions. One of my family’s Christmas Eve traditions is a fondue dinner before opening gifts, so of course that was a highlight. After dinner and a special Scripture reading, the babies & toddler opened their gifts before we put them to bed and the rest of the family opened gifts. (Side note: growing up, we used to open gifts on Christmas Day, but eventually switched to the German way of doing things and opened them all on Christmas Eve.)

On Christmas Day we slept in a little, had a large delicious dinner that my mom prepared, took a walk, had “Kaffee & Kuchen” (coffee & cake) then played some games in the evening.

And now for the barrage of pictures (get used to it, several more posts with lots of travel pics coming).

Cousins just 3 weeks apart

One of his favorite activities – playing with the special wooden Nativity.

The 4 youngest of the 7 original Davis kids.

Opa & Oma with their German grandbabies (and Emberly)

It’s safe to say that Emberly’s first Christmas was a success, and we were so happy to be able to celebrate with my family in Germany!

Even though we are now a couple weeks into 2018, I still want to review a few highlights from 2017. Obviously, having an adorable baby girl was the biggest highlight (as confirmed above by bestnine), but here are some other highlights of the year I don’t want to forget:

EatEmberly started eating solids daily this month. She likes everything she tries and will try everything. So far she’s had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, applesauce, carrots, green beans, a baguette, oatmeal and eggs. About halfway through the month we started transitioning to nursing every 3 hours instead of 2.

SleepThis month we had highs and lows with sleep. Before we left for our 3 week trip to Europe, Emberly would go to bed around 7:30pm and sleep until 7:30/8:00am, waking up 2-3 times per night and go right back to sleep after nursing. Then we went to Germany and the jetlag was a real nightmare. The first 2 nights she woke up every hour and was completely inconsolable. Then Loren read up on how to get a baby over jetlag (he’s the real MVP) and a few nights later she started sleeping better. Towards the end of the month, she transitioned to 2 1-2 hour naps a day.

PlayEmberly loves to stuff her feet and hands in her mouth and waves her arms to reach for things. She likes to carefully examine whatever toy she’s given, then stuff it in her mouth. As far as rolling goes – she can do it but so far mostly does it on accident when she’s in her crib. Definitely a social baby, she loves to see people and smiles and giggles to get anyone’s attention.

Emberly,
Everything about you is sweet – the way you pull up and snuggle into your sleepsack at night, the way you try to get everyone’s attention and smile and babble until they look at you (which usually doesn’t take long 😉 ), the way you stop nursing and look very concerned when you hear an unusual sound, the way you try to stuff your pacifier back in your mouth (usually backwards), the way you giggle after you sneeze, the way you greet me with a huge smile when you wake up – basically anything and everything you do. Most everyone you meet says the same thing – you are the smiliest baby they know – and I have to agree.

Firsts

You experienced your first snow (in Indiana).

You finally rolled (back to tummy) on your own!

You went on your first flight(s) and, well, survived.

You went out of the country for the first time. And then to a total of 5 new ones.

You went on your first street car ride.

You met your Oma, more aunts & uncles and German cousins.

You celebrated your first Christmas (in Germany) and New Year’s (in Switzerland).

You visited your first castle.

You’ve hard first tastes of so many different foods and seem to like pretty much everything that’s put in your mouth.

This year, after the past 2 Thanksgivings down South, we had another one in Cincinnati with Loren’s family and it was such a good time. Since we packed in so many fun things this holiday weekend, this post is chock-full with pictures of all the things I want to remember.

We headed out for Cincinnati after Loren got off work on Wednesday evening and arrived in time for Emberly to hang out with her aunts, uncle and grandparents for a little bit before she went to bed. After putting her down for the night, the rest of us played a fun game before going to bed at a semi-decent hour.

Emberly had a pretty rough night (not being used to sharing a room with her parents), so Thanksgiving morning Loren let me sleep in a little bit before a leisurely breakfast with everyone. After breakfast, we visited the grandmas (E’s great-grandmas) and then came back home to relax and finish getting dinner ready before the rest of the family members showed up (there were 30 of us!). Once everyone arrived, we snapped some family pictures, stuffed ourselves with all the delicious food, sang a few Thanksgiving songs and caught up on each other’s lives. So many wonderful family members to be thankful for!

Eat Towards the beginning of the month, she tried her first food (rice cereal) and didn’t hate it, but also didn’t know what to do with it. Since then she has had little tastes of avocado, egg and apple. She still nurses ever 2-4 hours and takes a bottle every once in a while if it’s warm enough.

SleepWakeup time is usually between 7-8am and she goes to bed for the night around 7:30pm. Sleeping all the way through the night still hasn’t happened yet. We started weaning her off her midnight and 3am wakings/feedings, but then we traveled for Thanksgiving and she slept in our room and didn’t sleep too well (once we put her in the closet, she slept much better). She still wakes up around midnight and 4am, but is learning to self-soothe and put herself back to sleep. She likes to pull up her sleep sack around her face and cuddle with it.

PlayShe’s found her feet and loves to get her ball rattle stuck on them. She reaches up to touch her toys on her play gym and will try to grab anything within arms’ reach. Rolling over (from back to tummy) hasn’t quite happened yet, but she’s so close! She loves people and will smile and get excited if anyone talks to her.

Emberly,
Your sweet personality keeps on expanding! You try to hold your own bottle, which your dad thinks is hilarious. You’ve started to fake cough and it cracks me up every time. You wear size 3 month clothing tops and 6 month bottoms (those long Crisp legs) and size 2 diapers. You absolutely LOVE bath time and get super excited when you hear the water running for your bath. You can go from staring seriously to laughing within a split second and it’s so fun finding ways to make you giggle. You’re still a good traveler and don’t mind the car seat as long as it’s moving or you’re somehow entertained.

Firsts

You had your first non-family babysitter for an evening so mommy & daddy could go out and cried once she got there until we left, then were pretty good.

You finally met some cousins on your mom’s side and immediately became best friends with your closest girl cousin Pepper.

You had your first food (rice cereal) and you didn’t hate it, but didn’t know what to think, either.

You sat in your high chair for the fist time.

You spent your first Thanksgiving with your dad’s extended family and loved meeting so many new people.

You may or may not have heard of capsule wardrobes, but here’s the deal: you pick out a certain number of clothing and only wear outfits from those articles for a certain amount of time. Since I’m in a weird stage body-wise right now (recently had a baby and breastfeeding), I gravitate towards the same outfits anyway, but wanted to be more intentional about it. I’m a huge proponent of getting rid of things I don’t need, especially clothes, and I’ve also recently decided to only buy clothes that really and truly fit and make me happy. Quality over quantity.

Here is my simple list (I have not included athletic wear, leggings and sweats):